A Weekend, Just for US

Thursday night before bed, Dave told Caroline he had a surprise for her the next morning. I had no idea what he was talking about. Friday morning came and I had forgotten about the promise, but before he left for work he told Caroline, "Guess what? Today, you get to go to Aunt Joleen's house and have a sleepover!" I was thinking, "she is?". He then told me to pack a weekend bag for Caroline and an overnight bag for myself and he'd see me after work!

What?!!!! :)

My sweet husband arranged a whole weekend for just the two of us. Caroline went to her cousin's house for the weekend and we went to the Crown Plaza!



He'd been planning the whole thing all week, and I didn't have a clue! I love surprises!




We ate at "Gus's World Famous Fried Chicken" We saw it on the Food Network once and always wanted to go. It's one of those places that if you knew nothing about it, and happened to walk by it, you'd be scared to go inside! But it was so delicious and very friendly!


We walked around down town and watched the sunset at the park by the river.




The next day we went to the Brooks Art Museum. This is the only picture we got, because of course, they don't allow photography inside.




Dave got his first look at the Mud Island River Walk and I think he was impressed!



Then we went on a Mississippi River Boat tour cruise!


This was really pretty cool. We had planned on going for my birthday, but just didn't. I'm so glad we went though.

We learned a lot from the historic tour guide on deck. I was worried that it was going to be hot, but with the shade and the breeze it was perfect!

Then we went to the movies! I can't tell you how rare an event that is for us! We've now seen 2 this year!

What a great weekend. Really, my guy surprised me good! I had no idea he had this whole thing under his sleeve. I felt like it couldn't have come at a better time - we totally needed it. It was nice that we only went 30 mins. away but it felt like a mini-vacation.

And needless to say, Caroline had a blast with Aunt Joleen, Uncle Jeff and cousins Emily, Jessica, and Ashley! They even offered to keep her one more night, but I said no - I missed her too much! So a HUGE thank-you to them!

Because Kids are for Laughing at... I mean with

Dave and I are busting a gut right now, in case you were wondering.

And just so you can remember that she really is sweet and cute...

Tagged - 8 Things

8 Favorite TV shows:

-The Office
-American Idol
-Ace of Cakes
-House Hunters
-The Soup
-Seinfeld
-What Not to Wear
-Lie to Me


8 Things I Did Yesterday:

-laundry
-cleaned floors
-grocery shopping
-took a nap with Caroline
-had Family Home Evening
-read The Book of Mormon
-ate an icecream cone
-said something I wish I hadn't

8 Restaurants I love:

- On the Border
-Olive Garden
-Chalo's (in Safford, AZ)
-Chik-fil-a
-Eegee's (in Tucson, AZ)
-Taco Bell
- Subway
-R&R Pizza (in Thatcher, AZ)

8 Things I'm looking forward to:

- Going swimming today with Caroline
-Taking a nap today with Caroline (because she'll be exhausted after swimming!)
- Going to AZ!!!!!!
-Going on a date with my husband (whenever that will be)
-Dave conquering that stupid test.
-Seeing my friend's and family's new babies
-PayDay
-My DownEastBasic package! should be any day now....



8 Things on my Wish List:

- A piano
- A better computer
- Donuts
- A sibling for Caroline
- A kitten for Dave
- A foot massage
- A weekend away with Dave
- A sense of direction

8 People I Tag:
-Jen
-Cara
-Paij
-Adrian
-Joy
-Amy
-Jami
-Brad

How to Build A Deck

1. Tell your husband you want a deck.

2. Save money for many months.

3. Remind your husband you want a deck.

4. Repeat step 3 as necessary.

5. Buy lumbar.

6. Call Ryan for help.

7. Take a siesta (only applicable if you're a cute 3-year old girl)

8. Work like crazy into the night. (Only applicable if you're a big strong man)

9. Enjoy the fruits of your labor with a BBQ!

We are loving our deck! Dave did a great job and worked so hard! We still have a few more things to do with it - stain, steps, railing. But at least we can use our patio furniture and enjoy the backyard a little more as it is. Dave is hoping for a new grill for Father's Day now!

Pink Palace Museum...finally

It seems like most people I know are having exciting experiences and changes to their lives right now. I feel dumb anytime someone asks, "So, what's new with you guys?!" Ummm... nothing. Really. So I feel like I talk about (and blog) the same old trivial day-to-day happenings, but that's our lives and we like it! (we can't all move to Singapore:) So here's a little blurb about something fun we did this week!

We've lived here almost a year now, and just made our first trip to the Pink Palace Museum on Memorial Day! I thought that it was going to be mostly a museum about Memphis, displaying local stuff only, but it's really much more than that - we were impressed!

If you don't know what the Pink Palace is, here's a quick explanation (if you do, skip it!) The man who invented the modern grocery store concept with the Piggly Wiggly was very famous and rich. He started building a huge mansion made of pink granite. Before it was completed, he went bankrupt. The home and land was donated to the city to use as a museum and there you have it!

The humongous mansion is only part of the museum. It's since been expanded and includes an IMAX theater and a planetarium!

My favorite part was the old-fashioned grocery store. I loved looking through the shelves and seeing the old products and packaging.

They have a lot of taxidermy animals, fossils, bones, and historic displays.

Caroline's favorite part of the historic displays were the old pageantry clothes! Very fancy and sparkly!

And yes, they have dinosaurs!

We'll go back sometime and check out the planetarium. I love that there's so many things to do here! When we have a free Saturday or something and we're trying to figure out what to do, there's always places to go and things to see. After living in smaller towns that have 2 or 3 attractions, this is such an exciting change!

On our list of places to go is: The Children's Museum, The Art museum, The planetarium,a Memphis Redbirds game, and the Botanical Gardens. But I add something new to the list any time I hear about something else!

Spot of Tea?

Caroline was so excited to attend the "Mad Hatter Tea Party" at our library this weekend!

It was an Alice in Wonderland theme and all the kids wore hats and did a Mad Hatter parade. It was so cute!


They had punch and snacks, listened to a story, and played games. Caroline had been looking forward to this for weeks and it did not disappoint! Our library is wonderful and is always doing great activities like this - I LOVE it!

Caroline is playing croquet with her flamingo club, just like the movie!

It was so cute to see all the little girls dressed up with their fancy hats - it was definitely right up Caroline's alley!